


Brothers In Arms

by FangirlWriter15



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Big Brother Gabriel, Episode: s05e08 Changing Channels, Episode: s05e19 Hammer of the Gods, Episode: s09e18 Meta Fiction, Episode: s13e20 Unfinished Business, Episode: s13e22 Exodus, Fledgling Castiel, Gen, Little Brother Castiel, Little bit of Fluff, mostly angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-07 16:22:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15223037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FangirlWriter15/pseuds/FangirlWriter15
Summary: Castiel had lost Gabriel and found him again so many times, it was almost normal.





	Brothers In Arms

“Gabe,” the fledgling angel whined, tugging at the hem of the archangel’s tunic, “please play with me.”  
Gabriel looked down at Castiel from where he had been sitting, elbows on his knees, staring off pensively.  
“Sorry, Cassie, I can’t right now.” Gabriel smiled sadly at Castiel and ruffled the young angel’s hair. “You can play with Balthazar.”  
“But I want to play with you.” Castiel stuck out his bottom lip. “Why can’t you play with me?”  
Gabriel sighed, eyes downcast. “I just can’t right now.”  
Castiel was taken aback.  
“What’s wrong, Gabe?” the fledgling asked, setting both small hands on the archangel’s knee.  
Gabriel took Castiel under the arms and pulled him up to sit on his lap.  
“Cassie, I’m going to have to go away for a while. Probably a long while”  
Castiel’s brow furrowed in a way that Gabriel would usually have thought was cute, but now the older angel couldn’t help the pang of sadness that ran through him.  
“Why?” Castiel asked.  
“I just have to get away, Cassie.”  
The younger angel’s lip trembled. “But I don’t want you to go.”  
Gabriel pulled the fledgling into a tight hug. “Don’t worry, Cassie. It’s not forever. You’ll see me again.”  
“Promise?” Castiel said, face buried in the archangel’s chest.  
“Promise.” Gabriel answered for Castiel’s benefit, knowing full well that he was lying.

Castiel had never expected to see Gabriel again, and especially not in the guise of a lowly trickster demigod.  
And he certainly hadn’t expected to be knocked around and trapped in a pocket dimension.  
Then the archangel had snapped him back into reality and Castiel had suddenly found himself beside the Winchesters, standing before Gabriel himself, who was trapped in a ring of holy fire.  
“Cas, you okay?” Dean had asked.  
“I’m fine,” he had answered before he turned to the archangel.  
“Hello, Gabriel.”  
“Hey, bro,” Gabriel greeted, all snark, “How’s the search for Daddy going? Let me guess. Awful.”  
Castiel knew that Gabriel was purposely trying to strike a nerve, and it worked. He fixed the archangel with a glare.  
Castiel remembered the Gabriel he knew in heaven. The loving older brother that he had looked up to and practically worshipped as a fledgling. The angel couldn’t help the pang of sadness he felt as he thought about how much the archangel had changed.  
Castiel snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Dean raise his voice. He was speaking of Gabriel’s family, God and the other archangels. Gabriel just glared at the hunter, seething.  
The Winchesters turned towards the entrance of the warehouse and Castiel followed. Dean tipped the fire alarm on the way out to activate the sprinklers.  
Castiel turned one last time to look at Gabriel and the archangel met his eyes for a moment, expression unreadable.  
Mentally shaking himself, Castiel turned and followed the Winchesters out of the warehouse.

Perhaps it was just because he was mostly human, but Castiel had a strange feeling of warmth now that he was riding in the back seat of the impala with the Winchesters up front. It felt familiar.  
He enjoyed the feeling.  
“So,” the angel began, breaking the silence that had fallen over the car’s occupants, “what happened while I was gone?”  
Dean was the first to answer.  
“Lucifer showed up again.”  
“What happened?” Castiel asked, eyes wide.  
Sam answered him this time.  
“Some pagan gods wanted to use us as leverage to stop the apocalypse. Lucifer showed up and slaughtered them.”  
“How did you escape him?” Castiel questioned after a moment of digesting the information.  
“Gabriel,” Dean said, “we got him to agree to help.”  
“Where is he, then?”  
“He distracted Lucifer so we could get away,” Sam replied, “Lucifer killed him.”  
Castiel paused as he took in the news. He certainly wouldn’t put it past Gabriel to fake his own death.  
“Are you sure? Did you see him die?” the angel wanted to know.  
“We saw his body, Cas. We’re sure.” Dean told him.  
“Sorry, Cas,” Sam added sympathetically, “Did you know him?”  
“In heaven,” Castiel confirmed, “I hadn’t seen him for millennia, before Ohio.”  
Gabriel had definitely changed since Castiel had known him, but his loss was still painful.  
But Castiel knew that his grief paled in comparison to the looming apocalypse, so he put it away.  
At least for now.

Castiel peered out of the window of the convenience store at the angels forming up outside.  
“We'll never keep these guys out of here.” Gabriel voiced his thoughts.  
“I know. So,” Castiel hefted his blade, “we fight.”  
“No,” Gabriel said, “I fight. I lied before.” Castiel turned his eyes to Gabriel. “I never watched Downton Abbey. I was just trying to fit in.” Castiel turned back to the window, heaving a small sigh, inaudible at the archangel’s antics, but Gabriel continued.  
“Oh, and I still have some archangel juice left. I can hold these boneheads long enough,” he went on.  
“Long enough for what?” Castiel asked.  
“For you to get out of here.” Gabriel spared him a glance and jerked his head towards the back door.  
“No, I’m not leaving you.” Castiel moved to look at Gabriel over one the display shelves.  
“Yes, you are,” the archangel said, firmly, “Those guys will cut you to ribbons. But I can stall them long enough for you to amscray. And you can take my place.”  
“What are you talking about?” Castiel moved so that he was in front of Gabriel.  
“The angels need a leader, and it's got to be somebody like us, somebody different.”  
Castiel shook his head. “No,” he said quietly.  
Gabriel’s voice softened. “I know you don't want this burden, Castiel. Neither do I.”  
Castiel avoided the archangel’s eyes. “What if I fail again?”  
Gabriel gripped his shoulder hard, and pulled Castiel around to look at him.  
“You won’t,” he said seriously with a slight shake of his head.  
“You can’t,” the archangel added in a gentler tone.  
Castiel’s jaw twitched and he pulled Gabriel in to a hug.  
“Thank you,” he said.  
“Shut up,” Gabriel replied and patted Castiel’s shoulder one last time before pulling away.  
Castiel turned towards the store’s back entrance but stopped when he went to stow his blade. The tear in the lining of his coat from earlier had disappeared.  
“Haven’t got all day, hot pants,” the archangel said, throwing a glance over his shoulder.  
“Was any of this real?” Castiel questioned calmly, turning about to face Gabriel.  
“What the hell are talking about?”  
One of the attacking angels had shattered the door and was climbing through.  
Gabriel whipped around and shoved Castiel in the chest. “Cas, go!” he yelled, but Castiel stood his ground. “So, what, we both die here?”  
“No, you’re already dead.” Castiel slid his blade into the archangel and it passed through, met with no resistance.  
Gabriel stared down at the blade. “Well.”  
He snapped his fingers and the angel vanished.  
“What gave it all away?” he asked.  
Castiel showed the inside of his coat. “My coat was torn earlier today.  
“Ah, crap. I really hate continuity errors,” Gabriel said, shaking his head in annoyance.  
“So, none of this is real, and I'm guessing I'm no longer in the motel,” Castiel said, looking around at his fabricated surroundings.  
“Here’s the thing,” Gabriel told him, “none of it was real, but all of it was true.”  
“Whose truth?” Castiel asked, distrustingly, “Your’s or Metatron’s?”  
“Just hear him out, would you?” Gabriel said, “He's trying to help you.”  
“Really?” Castiel retorted with wry incredulity, “How?”  
Gabriel let out a small nervous laugh. “Sorry, didn't read the whole script, just, uh, skimmed for my parts. Well,” He patted his shoulder with a smile. “it's good to see you, old bean.”  
Gabriel lifted his hand, fingers pressed together, but Castiel stopped him.  
“Wait,” he said and exhaled through his nose, unsure of whether he wanted an answer, “Are you dead?”  
Gabriel’s face morphed into a smirk and he waggled his eyebrows, before snapping his fingers.  
Castiel suddenly found himself in Metatron’s office. The Gabriel he had been talking to may have only been an illusion, but for the first time in a while, Castiel allowed himself to have faith.

Castiel stole a glance to Gabriel as he led the archangel down the corridor in the bunker’s dormitory ward to his new room. After careful consideration, the angel had decided against giving Gabriel his old room back, as its walls were covered in Enochian characters.  
“This is it,” Castiel said, opening the door to a room and motioning the archangel inside.  
“Homey,” Gabriel commented, looking the room up and down.  
“We would have given you back your old room,” Castiel continued, “but with the writing on the walls, we thought it might––“  
“Upset me?” Gabriel guessed.  
Castiel dropped his gaze to the floor.  
“I’m a big boy, Castiel. You don’t have to coddle me.”  
“I know,” Castiel said, “I’m sorry.”  
The angel had been having a hard time with the whole Gabriel situation. After thinking the archangel dead for the last eight years, with the benefit of the doubt of course, he randomly turns up again, a shell of his former self, only to suddenly regain his power and disappear.  
And while that was a lot, that wasn’t the only thing that had Castiel bothered.  
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.  
Gabriel turned around. “You already said that.”  
“No, not about that.”  
Gabriel looked interested.  
“Gabriel, I–– When Asmodeus had me, I was so close to you,” Castiel said haltingly, “I could have saved you, I should have––“ He swallowed hard. “I’m so sorry.”  
“Cas,” Gabriel stopped him before he could say more, “don’t take the blame for that. You didn’t know.”  
“That’s no excuse.” Castiel starred at his shoes.  
“I’m back, Castiel,” the archangel stated, “that Kentucky-fried dick is dead. It’s in the past.”  
Castiel glanced up at Gabriel’s face and saw only forgiveness there. Suddenly overcome with emotion, he pulled the archangel in and hugged him. He was pleasantly surprised to feel Gabriel return the hug.  
“I’m glad you’re back,” the angel muttered.  
“Shut up,” Gabriel replied, inadvertently quoting himself.  
Castiel allowed himself a smile before pulling away.  
“I’ll leave now,” he said and left, shutting the door behind him.

The apocalypse world refugees milled around. Talking, drinking, celebrating. They kept their distance, not that the Castiel blamed them. They had plenty of reason to be wary around angels.  
Besides, Castiel preferred the solitude.  
Gabriel was dead. Again. Stabbed to death by his own brother. Again.  
“Hey,” Dean greeted, joining Castiel where the angel had been standing alone in the threshold of the library.  
“Hey,” the angel replied without looking up.  
“How are you holding up, Cas?” Dean probed gently.  
“I’m fine,” Castiel said, aware that he sounded anything but.”  
“Gabe, he’d been on the run for so long. He sacrificed himself. He’s the reason Sam and I got out,” Dean said, offering solace, just as Sam joined them, “We owe him everything.”  
Castiel missed Gabriel dearly, but was tremendously grateful to him for allowing the Winchesters to escape.  
His brother may have be in the Empty, but Castiel could only hope that Gabriel had finally found peace.


End file.
